Dishonored: Death of the Outsider Is Free On Epic

Monday, I want to throw Jeffrey back into orbit for the latest change to Prime Gaming, and Demon’s Tilt is to get a sequel that is not Crew Ball so it isn’t interesting. Tuesday, Gundam Evolution‘s third season was announced to the excitement of those waiting for EA not to cancel another Titanfall game. Wednesday, the latest hit baseball star from the West Indies was revealed to be on the cover of MLB The Show 23, so yeah that could be anyone in baseball. Thursday, in a surprise announcement it was unveiled that The Crew is heading to Hawaii just a day after Axios reported that 40 staff members downed tools and went on strike.

In other news that Samuel will cover in detail later today, Rumbleverse (which was only released last August) is being shut down at the end of the month. Any purchases made should be refunded. This almost makes me think that’s the shortest-lived live-service game in recent years. I could be wrong as Square Enix’s taste for releasing the likes of Babylon’s Fall and then canning it a year later has become normal. If I’m honest, I’m surprised Ubisoft’s Roller Champions has persisted for a whole 6 months. Though that’s enough about money-grabbing games, let’s talk about free games on Epic for this week.

We’ll start with Billie Lurk and the Death of the Outsider standalone expansion. I love the gameplay loop Arkane made with Dishonored, but they are not as deep as Thief games when Garret sounded like he chewed gravel for breakfast. Released almost a year after Emily Kaldwin’s story, you aren’t getting a whole 40 hours of gameplay. Instead, you get more like 6 to 10 if you pace yourself. Between Dishonored being free over the Christmas period, Dishonored 2 being available through Prime for GOG and now this, you’ll most likely have the whole series to play. For completionists, that’s about 120 hours of stealthy nitpicking.

The second game available on the Epic Games Store this week is something I’ve been trying to find the time to review properly, but City of Gangsters is a game you need patience for. Set in the time of the man that got a best-before date onto milk, your goal is to create a crime syndicate through small businesses that all feed into your larger enterprise. Skirting the law and taking on other families in Chicago, Detroit, or Pittsburgh, as well as Steam Workshop or DLC-based maps, the goal is to take over the city by any means necessary. It is fun in that strategy way but also slow and methodical if you want to play properly.

All this week you can pick up City of Gangsters and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider for free on the Epic Games Store until the 9th of February. Coming up next week, I’ll be swearing like a trooper as I try to manage a restaurant by way of “silly” hijinks. I’m sure it will eventually be labeled a Recipe For Disaster. Micromanaging just about everything, Dapper Penguin Studios’ 2021 release might not be to everyone’s taste but I might be one of very few to enjoy what flavors it brings.